No matter how much you wash your hands, avoid coughing commuters, or wipe down your work space, the flu is out there — and it's seriously hard to avoid at this point.

Children are among the most vulnerable to this illness. In a viral Facebook post, Brodi Willard, a nurse, pointed out that there's one flu symptom that may catch you off guard: hives.

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Willard's son, Seb, came home from school with hives. She tried everything to make them go away — changing his clothes, giving him baths and asking him to stop scratching. After calling her son's pediatrician, she learned that other children had the same symptoms and tested positive for the flu. Lo and behold, Seb also tested positive for influenza B.

What's most shocking to Willard is that her son didn't have any other traditional flu symptoms. "No fever, no cough and no runny nose. He only has hives," she wrote.

Thankfully, she caught the illness before it got worse.

"They put him on the Tamiflu, and he's been fine," she told WOWT News in an interview. "He's still playing and running around."

Her message serves as a warning to fellow parents.

"Please keep watch on your children so if they develop hives, please call your pediatrician," she wrote. "I have never heard of this symptom, but it is obviously something to be on the lookout for."

Acute hives, like Seb's, are very common in children. They typically flare up as a response to a viral infection (aka the flu). Negative reactions to food, insect bites or drugs, especially penicillin, may be also be a trigger.

Along with hives, the flu has a number of symptoms, including fever, chills, cough, runny or stuffy nose, headache, body aches, fatigue and nausea. The CDC recommends that children over the age of 6 months get the flu shot.

And no, it's not too late!

Check out another mom's heartbreaking warning to parents about getting the flu shot in the related video above.